I'm supposed to be taking part in a blog-a-day challenge throughout February. Believe it or not, I didn't get back to my dorm tonight until after midnight, so technically, I lost already. C'est la vie.
I'm learning to cut my losses. Right now, in addition to a 19 credit workload, I'm working on three (and a half) musicals now, preparing a film score, an orchestration project, 2 pieces for near-future performances, tours with Essence of Joy, part-time work, PSUAAA, this, grad school follow-ups, composition competitions, voice lesson accompaniment, radio shows, etc. In the past two weeks alone, I've had to give up swing dance, sleep, working out every day, hanging out, and degrees of timeliness, partially due to a bad cold I had last week.
I bring this up because I'm still having trouble figuring out exactly how to balance my life. The tendency at a university filled with 40,000 people is to either do absolutely nothing or everything possible. Those who balance exist, but in small amounts. I'm not one of them. I do everything, and I pay for it. And, unsurprisingly, I'm still a little behind.
A note to students: it's essential to be involved, but keep classes in mind. I'm one of those people who refuses to miss a class, and when I wake up in the morning and I have to decide between going to classes or chiseling out vocal arrangements, I know something's wrong.
So, sorry SHC for failing the Post-A-Day Challenge already. I'll continue posting, and often, but my current schedule leaves this challenge most inconveniently at odds with everything else.
I'm learning to cut my losses. Right now, in addition to a 19 credit workload, I'm working on three (and a half) musicals now, preparing a film score, an orchestration project, 2 pieces for near-future performances, tours with Essence of Joy, part-time work, PSUAAA, this, grad school follow-ups, composition competitions, voice lesson accompaniment, radio shows, etc. In the past two weeks alone, I've had to give up swing dance, sleep, working out every day, hanging out, and degrees of timeliness, partially due to a bad cold I had last week.
I bring this up because I'm still having trouble figuring out exactly how to balance my life. The tendency at a university filled with 40,000 people is to either do absolutely nothing or everything possible. Those who balance exist, but in small amounts. I'm not one of them. I do everything, and I pay for it. And, unsurprisingly, I'm still a little behind.
A note to students: it's essential to be involved, but keep classes in mind. I'm one of those people who refuses to miss a class, and when I wake up in the morning and I have to decide between going to classes or chiseling out vocal arrangements, I know something's wrong.
So, sorry SHC for failing the Post-A-Day Challenge already. I'll continue posting, and often, but my current schedule leaves this challenge most inconveniently at odds with everything else.
Bah, there is no "failure" in the challenge. One of my rules is that if I miss a day, I have to make it up on the weekend. It's like your working out every day -- even if you miss a day or two, you still get benefits from working out when you can. Just count this post as your post from the 3rd and proceed from there.
Of course academics and your health should come first. I just find that a good reflective post helps me make sense of what I'm learning throughout the day. It puts things in perspective.
I'm a firm believer in saying it's still technically the 3rd if you didn't go to bed yet! You have to sleep for the days to change :-)
It sounds like you're quite busy. I think it's interesting that you made the post to talk about your trouble finding balance. One of the things that blogging (or writing in general) should help you do is to reflect on issues like Allan states above. While the challenge might be hard, I think you'll find the reflection you get out of 20 posts this month to be quite satisfying. Maybe you'll even start to find some balance! I look forward to continuing to read about your progress!